“Tito Suarez, he let me know about the spot. I’d worked with him before, he owed me a favor. Why are you asking?”
“Is this about my case?” Willow asked, frowning.
Ethan answered before her brother could. “I’ve looked into that, it’s not…” He trailed off, unsure how to explain what he’d found in the least upsetting way. Several times he’d intended on saying something, but the timing never seemed right.
“Your case fell apart,” Salvatore stated, less sensitive to her feelings.
Her mouth dropped open. “That’s… not possible. There was evidence, there were witnesses…”
Salvatore nodded once, his gaze moving around the room. “The guys they put away are all dead. Inside job.” He paused before looking at Willow and adding, “And it wasn’t us.”
Willow stood there, blinking and shaking her head, mouth still agape. “I… I don’t understand.”
Turning his attention to Ethan, the less emotional of the two, Salvatore said, “I don’t know what you know, so bear with me. We were very distinctly given the impression that Willow’s kidnapping was orchestrated by Delmonico’s crew, acting on orders that came from Morelli.”
“Right,” Ethan said.
“That was bullshit.”
Ethan’s dark brows drew together in a scowl. “What do you mean, bullshit? How is that possible?”
“You ever meet any of them when you were working for them? Delmonico, any known associates of Delmonico?”
“Tito.”
“Other than Tito,” he said with an impatient, dismissive hand gesture.
“No,” Ethan said hesitantly. “But I was just a soldier, there’s no reason I would’ve—”
“You weren’t working for Delmonico’s crew,” Salvatore interrupted. “Along with all the other guys there, you were made to believe you were, but you weren’t.”
“Then who the hell was I working for?” Ethan demanded.
“Tito.”
Ethan couldn’t keep a short laugh from shooting out of him. “Tito? No. No way. Morelli’s got a trafficking operation, everyone knows it—”
“He does,” Salvatore agreed. “But he didn’t take Willow. Morelli has a daughter, you think that’s a precedent he wants to set, kidnapping and abusing a made guy’s daughter?”
Skeptical, Ethan demanded, “Exactly how do you know this? Last I checked, you weren’t a Morelli.”
Not like his guards had been down to begin with, but Salvatore’s features closed off even more. “That’s none of your business.”
“Who’s your source? Who says Morelli didn’t issue the order?”
“Mateo Morelli,” Salvatore stated, his tone brooking no room for further instigation on the matter.
“Senior or junior?”
Salvatore rolled his eyes. “Mateo, not Matt. The son’s running everything now, old man’s just a figurehead. No order with these kinds of consequences is going to happen on his watch without his knowledge. Not to mention, Delmonico’s too smart to hire some asshole he doesn’t know,” he added, jerking his eyebrows up to indicate Ethan was said asshole, in case he missed it.
He couldn’t very well argue that, though. Even when he’d gotten on the crew, he hadn’t been able to believe his luck—until it turned bad, and he realized it obviously hadn’t been luck.
“Notice Tito was the one who brought you in, the one who told you who you were working for, and also the only one who got away?” Salvatore asked. “You think that was luck? He wanted you guys to get caught.”
Ethan shook his head, the pieces not clicking together. “Why?”
Sighing, running a hand across his chin, Salvatore said, “That’s… not completely clear. What is clear at this point is that whoever Tito is working for, they wanted a beef betwee